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Home Group – Ruth, Naomi and Boaz Pt 1

by | Wed, Sep 25 2013

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Ruth (root’h), Naomi (Na’o’mee) & Boaz (Bo’aaz) Pt 1

The name Ruth is not found in Ancient Hebrew, but it’s made up of two Hebrew root words, ‘ra’a’ and ‘ra’ which mean to tend or pasture, and a friend or associate and from these the name of Ruth developed. Ruth is seen as a feminine derivation of these root words which mean ‘female or lady friend’ or ‘female or lady companion’.

The name Boaz appears to have different meanings according to different sources. The most reliable one has determined that the name has the root foundation from the word ‘azaz’ which means ‘be strong’. The name Boaz literally means ‘By strength’. The less convincing source holds that Boaz means ‘fleetness’ but this doesn’t give any source or origin for this meaning.

When looking at the characters of both Ruth and Boaz they fit their name meanings perfectly; Ruth was the epitome of a faithful friend, daughter and companion to her mother-in-law Naomi after they both became widows. Boaz was an incredibly strong and loyal man when he willingly entered in the Levirite marriage by willingly marrying Ruth who was a Gentile convert to Judaism.

The book of Ruth was possibly authored by Samuel during the rule of the Judges of which Samuel was the last. It was written after David’s birth because he is mentioned in the lineage at the very end of the book, but was written before Solomon’s lifetime because he was not mentioned in the family lineage.

The book of Ruth is a literary masterpiece. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German writer, artist and politician born in 1749 described the book of Ruth as “the loveliest, complete work on a small scale.” Dr John MacArthur describes the book of Ruth by saying, “What Venus is to statuary and the Mona Lisa is to paintings, Ruth is to literature.”

The book of Ruth is only 4 chapters long, and while it’s a beautiful love story, it’s an account that begins with great loss and grief and ends with great rejoicing and happiness; it’s also a book packed with prophetic insight and importance.

The story of Ruth is as follows…

A woman named Naomi and her husband and 2 sons lived in the town of Bethlehem in Israel, the nation at that time was experiencing a severe drought so they moved east across the Dead Sea and into the land of Moab. There, Naomi’s 2 sons married Moabite women; something the Jews were not supposed to do but during the time of the Judges, everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. (Jud 17:6, 21:25)

Tragedy followed this family and Naomi’s husband and both her sons died leaving Naomi and both her daughters-in-law – Ruth and Orpah – as widows. Naomi must have been an exceptional woman and mother-in-lw because both these young widows wanted to remain with her rather than return to their own families.

It took some convincing on Naomi’s part but eventually Orpah relented to Naomi’s urging and returned to her family but Ruth refused point blank to leave her mother-in-law; she said…

Ruth 1:16, ‘But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

From this we know that whatever pagan background Ruth had, she renounced it and converted to absolute belief and trust in Yahweh; Ruth converted to Judaism.

Naomi learned that things had improved in Israel and since they had no means of looking after themselves in Moab without husbands, she and Ruth set out on the journey to return to Bethlehem. It was Naomi’s job to now teach Ruth what Judaism believed and what the laws were all about.

Sadly, Naomi mistakenly believed that God had abandoned her, but her loss and tragedy were the very things that drove her to return to the Lord even though all she felt was pain and loss. (Ruth 1:13, 20-21)

Once they arrived back in Bethlehem, they had to find a way to survive. There was no such thing as social security in ancient cultures, there was still no king over the people, they were governed intermittently by different ‘judges’ interspersed with bouts of oppression from neighbouring enemies such as the Philistines. Life was still precarious but because God had instituted laws that protected and provided for the poor, the widows and orphans, and foreigners living among them, they had a far greater chance of survival.

Part of Jewish law required that landowners were only to harvest their crops once; this meant that any of the produce that was missed the first time through would not be gathered up, rather, it would be left and made available for the poor of the community to gather for themselves. This was called the Law of Gleaning. (Deut 24:19-22; Lev 19:9-10)

Naomi – an old woman – told Ruth about the law of gleaning and instructed her to go and work in the local fields to gather food once the first reaping had taken place. Ruth sought permission to glean in the fields of Boaz and Boaz noticed her; she was quite a beautiful woman but obviously not a local, and of course he wanted to know who was working in his fields…who they were and where they were from.

Bethlehem was a fairly small rural community and like most towns, everyone knows everyone else’s business and so they all knew that Naomi had returned from Moab without her husband and sons and only 1 single daughter-in-law who was a foreigner. They knew that Naomi had experienced enormous grief and loss when her husband and sons died, but they also recognized that Naomi had an exceptional daughter-in-law in Ruth. It’s because Ruth was such a loving and devoted daughter-in-law that she quickly became known as a very gracious woman and this is what Boaz learned when he made enquiries about her.

In fact, Boaz was so impressed with the quality of this young woman, he told his own workers to deliberately ensure extra food was left in her way so she could gather more than enough food to take home; he instructed her to work close to the other women so she would remain safe and he sternly warned the young men that they were not to even attempt to take advantage of her. Basically, Boaz took it upon himself to make sure Ruth was protected and provided for without her realising what he was doing. (Ruth 2:3-17)

When Ruth returned home with such a large amount of food, Naomi was stunned and wanted to know whose field she’d been gleaning in and when she found out the owner was Boaz, she recognised that he was in fact a near relative. This is really important because it brings the Law of Levirite Marriage (Yibbum) into play which we can look at next week.

Naomi believed in God, but she thought God had turned against her because in her mind, tragedy means God is against you but this is not true. God had a plan; a big plan and He Himself was leading and directing Naomi both to go into Moab to start with and then to bring her back with Ruth. This plan will become clearer over the next two weeks as we look at the implications of all that happened to these women.

The first lesson we need to really understand from today however is that material wealth and lack of sorrow doesn’t mean God is pleased with us any more than poverty, loss and grief mean God is displeased with us. The lesson for us is to honour God no matter what is going on in our lives and trust Him to lead us where He wants us to be.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, ‘Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.’

Shalom

Mandy